Hello all,
I have a serious problem which is concerned with a Debian
package. It is also a problem for Debian, I believe.
If this mail is out of place, I will apologize. Although I
looked at all mailing lists of Debian, I could not find
any other list than here for this issue. Would you please
tell me where I should tell it?
-----
1. Who am I?
I'm one of developers of a software named 'GLOBAL'. It is
a tool for programmers to read source code of software.
[GLOBAL web site]
http://www.gnu.org/software/global/
Debian includes it as a package.
[Debian package]
http://packages.debian.org/sid/global
I am not a member of Debian project and am not also a user of
Debian.
2. What is the problem?
GLOBAL package of Debian is too old. Since the maintainer
doesn't update it, and is not going to resign the post,
it is still old.
As a result, many of Debian GLOBAL users are continuing
using a very old version in all innocence. They are still
afflicted by bugs which was fixed many years ago.
3. Details
3.1 Current status
Current GLOBAL package of Debian is based on GLOBAL-5.7.1
which was released about 5 years or more before. It is greatly
inferior to the latest one (GLOBAL-6.2.8) in both quality and
performance.
version release date comment
-----------------------------------------------------
GLOBAL-5.7.1 April 21 2008 Debian package
GLOBAL-6.2.8 February 28 2013 latest version
-----------------------------------------------------
3.2 The maintainer's action
Since 2010, some people asked the maintainer frequently to
update the package. However, he ignored them. (Please refer
to the thread [1][4] added to the end of this mail.)
A person offered him taking over of his work; But he rejected.
(thread [2])
This March, I suggested to him that the package should be
orphaned; There is no response (thread [1]). Since there is no
sign of his activities, I sent a bug report to orphan it.
Then, he closed the bug immediately (thread [3]).
4. My wish
My wish is that more debian users can enjoy newer GLOBAL.
Though I hope negotiated settlement, it became difficult.
Because the maintainer has sunk into silence. I would like to
ask you to solve the problem.
5. Conclusion
The problem above is not a mere trouble between two programmers,
but a serious obstacle for Free Software. Because Debian users
are forced to use old software without any explanation.
I guess that there are such other cases.
Debian Social Contract says:
"2. We will give back to the free software community"
However, what was "given back to" us from Debian was a gloomy
thing. Could you please recognize the problem and take appropriate
measures?
Thank you for your time to read my poor English.
Regards,
Shigio YAMAGUCHI
References:
[1] Subject: global: newer release (5.9.2) is available
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=574947
[2] Subject: global.cgi fails to work with id-utils extension.
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=590053
[3] Subject: O: global -- Source code tagging system
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=704508
[4] global: Current Debian package is too old
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=711040
--
Shigio YAMAGUCHI <shigio@gnu.org>
PGP fingerprint: D1CB 0B89 B346 4AB6 5663 C4B6 3CA5 BBB3 57BE DDA3